The French government has passed a law designed to tackle the problems caused by the ‘always on’ culture of staff who are available 24/7 via their phones. As of January 1, employees of companies with over 50 members of staff now have the legal right to ignore emails sent out of office hours. This ‘right to disconnect’ is designed to quell the rise in unpaid overtime, as well as issues like burnout and sleeplessness that a permanent level of accessibility can cause.

It astonishes me that this practice has become so common and expected that it deserves a law to curtail it. Still, why should it apply only to companies with greater than fifty employees?